Culture

12 Games That Existed Just to Sell You Junk Food

The weird, secret history of videogames that were little more than tie-in products for Pepsi, Domino's Pizza, Skittles, and more.
Image may contain Duel
  • 12 Games That Existed Just to Sell You Junk Food
  • Image may contain Scoreboard and Text
  • 12 Games That Existed Just to Sell You Junk Food
1 / 12
001-KOOLAID
Given their prominence in the new console's marketing materials, one would be forgiven for thinking that the killer apps for the Xbox One are Mountain Dew and Doritos. Games that assume their customers must be junk food-gobbling teens are nothing new, though. Since the days of Atari, videogames have been used to deliver food advertisements. Sometimes the games themselves are based around a popular food product, restaurant or mascot. McDonald's had its own Nintendo game called M.C. Kids; more recently, Burger King sold custom Xbox games featuring its creepy plastic-headed monarch. But the story of games and junk food doesn't end there. Several lesser-known games from around the world have real-life food products buried in them. Some are rare promotional items, some are existing games that have had ads inserted into them, and some just tried in offensive ways to bombard us with surprise hidden ads after we'd already paid for the game. Here's our look at the semi-secret history of junk food and videogames. Above:

Kool-Aid Man (Atari 2600, Intellivision)

The intrepid pioneer of a long line of games prominently featuring sweetened beverages, Kool-Aid Man gave children worldwide the opportunity they dreamed of to smash through walls, scream "OHHH YEAAAAAH!" and tout the values of new Sharkleberry Finn flavor. At least, that’s probably what they hoped they would get, but the actual game was a dull-as-dirt affair where you try and stop blobby things called "Thirsties" from drinking all the water in a pond. You could obtain the game via the tried-and-true method of mailing in Kool-Aid Points, but if you were lacking in back-of-the-package currency you could also get it in stores for traditional bills. Either way, you still felt ripped off. Screengrab: VGMuseum